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Topic: Ah Ivan, he's lost some toenails (Read 2500 times)

Oh, my poor Ivan, the light brahma rooster, that 8-month-old. He has had a bit of a (what I thought was a leg) soreness of his foot, and holds it up quite a bit. I wanted to check out his leg yesterday, and noticed that on both feet, his middle toenail is gone. Today he is still favouring his leg and I think he may be missing some more toenails. Hmmm...very strange. They have great food, lots of vitamins in it, oyster shell freely.

He is obviously sore, and it appears his toes may be a little bit swollen. Any ideas what may be going on with his toenails gone missing? I put a message out at Backyard Chickens, but it doesn't seem that anyone knows anything. I looked at other posts about another person that had a rooster with missing toenails, she had no good replies to her query. He is not sparring with the other rooster, he is chased now and then, but can't imagine that would affect his toenails. He is sore, poor dude, I feel for him. If you know what this is, please elaborate. Beautiful days in our great lives, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Well Cindi, let me think a little here.Its very strange that he is missing the same toenail on each foot.I had a rooster that was born without one on each foot once.

What do you have him roosting on?Dowels or sticks are not good for their feet. I use a 4 inch piece of lumber for my roosts.They should not be curving their toes or feet around anything.You may know this and this is not the issue for you but I am just throwing out possibilities so bear with me.I know that they can lose a toenail and hurt their feet if they are jumping from roosts that are too high.

Jerry has a good point, he may be getting them caught on something and ripping them out. Is there anything around the yard you can think of that would be doing that?

I would also wonder if he went at it with another rooster, when they go at eachother with their feet I could easily see nails getting torn out.

The other thing is that a toe nail may have gotten accidentally ripped out and now its infected or its not infected but just too sore to walk on while it heals.Maybe you can seal it up with some blue coate.

Lastly, even though he lost a toenail, is it possible that he actually hurt his leg and that is why he is favoring it?It may be that his injury is his leg and the toenail missing is secondary.Any chance at all that he has leg mites?

If it was colder right now my thoughts would be on frostbite. They can lose their combs, toes, wattles etc. to frostbite.I know your chickens are well cared for but like I said I am just trying to come up with all possible scenarios.I hope you can find out what is wrong with him and he feels better.

JP, still a brat? That just doesn't seem to go away with you, smiling, one day, your comeupence will come, smiling. I wondered what those huge trails of blood were in the chickenyard, I was a little worried actually, because all the birds are accounted for. Now JP, my advice to you, dear friend, stay out of my chickenyard. I have "things" in there that protect the critters, you may have not noticed them, as you were trying to get a duck, they lurk beneath the barns, between the walls, and just like that duck that I could through through cyberspace to you, onto your dinner plate, they have capacities that you would never believe. I am shocked they didn't see ya, AND GETCHA!! Watch out, something like boogeymen, smiling..... so much fun to tease, now ain't it, hee, hee.

No scaley leg mites, I know what they are, had them before, got rid of the chickens that had them, due to old age, and they are not present in the houses now.

Fighting. Nope. He is the low man on the totem pole and all he does is run. Never seen any fighting physically between them.

Now the roosts. Hmmmm...possibilities here. They roost about 4 feet in the air. They fly down to the floor. The floor is cement. I have shavings on the floor, but the shavings get blown around when the birds fly up and down. I used to keep straw and shavings on the floor. I think I will return to that. I see in that house that there is a center part that the shavings are not covering, it is bare cement. I may think, upon thinking about it, that perhaps he has flown down onto the cement and may have cracked off his toenails. Today, I will put a thick layer of straw down again, thicker in that area where they land on the ground. I don't think that 4 feet is too tall of a place to get down from, but maybe. What is a typical "safe" height for a chicken to fly up to?

The roosts, they are 2X4, and yes, their toes may curl because the boards are sitting the narrow side up. I will put another 2X4 alongside to make them all 4x4. That is good to know, because I did not know that Natalie.

I don't think that there is anything else out there that they could get caught on, I don't think. I think it may be the roost thing. I will examine Ivan further today.

Someone said maybe someone is biting off his toenails, nope, don't think so.

We are moving the eggs in the incubator to the hatching tray. My Husband built me a grand double tray, of which I will post a picture another time. Beautiful days in these lives we live, share and love, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

I'm in SW TN, and went over to my dad's tonight to check on a problem he called me about with his Rooster. The 3 year old Light Brahma Rooster is missing 4 toes, 2 are healed and two are looking bloody scabby. They look like what might have happened to this bird after the shriveled parts fell off: (Google "Graphic PHOTOS of Gangrene CHICKEN FEET" to see the photo.) Two toes on each foot are affected, the two that have healed are stubby, it is as though he lost the entire toe from the joint down. The two that are scabby look as though part of his toe just fell off. This morning my father reported that the toe and nail were there on one of them, but looked like it was just bone -- no flesh. This evening it was gone. I gave the bird a Pen G injection, and opted to research it before doing anything more. Some have suggested scaley leg mite, but him being a Brahma, and having feathered legs, he just looks that way. No other chickens in the flock are affected.

It has been very wet and rainy here, so if it is some sort of fungal problem I could understand that. But I find it odd that we both have Light Brahmas with this problem. This guy came from McMurray Hatchery.

My plan is to treat the stubs with Tea Tree Oil and continue with the antibiotic for 5 days unless anyone has other ideas.

Kathy, first off I would like to welcome you to our forum, I see that you have only made one post, in response to my post about Ivan. Stick around, come back, we value new members.

Ivan only lost one middle toe nail on each foot. Nothing as extreme as what your Father is experiencing with his brahma, that is nasty. I wish this bird well.

I don't know what happened to him. I don't think it is only with the breed of bird. I think that Ivan caught his nail on some stucco wire that I have stapled to pallets that run along the front of my chicken houses. I noticed that some of the wire had uplifted and not a doubt in my mind that when Jackson (my other rooster) was chasing him that he caught his toenails on that. It is now fixed, with deep staples that will not pull out.

Ivan's foot is not sore any longer. I picked him up yesterday, roosters get rather indignant when they are picked up eh? smiling. I looked long and hard at his toenails and the one that was particularly sore has began to grow back and he is no longer standing there on one leg. I felt bad. My neglect in not keeping a really closer eye on things out there.

That is my update, it is short, but positive. I hope that the brahma that has such bad toes gets well. Let us know what has happened, I would be very interested. have that wonderful, most awesome day, to love and live this great life we all share, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Just FYI, every winter I have some guineas that loose some nails. This year I had a young one get lost in a blizzard for 3 days before my dog found her. Coincidentally, she lost all the nails on one foot and all but 2 on the other. Is there any chance Ivan lost it during a cold spell?

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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

Rob, no. We are in very warm temperatures now. We have not had really cold weather for about 2 months now. Ivan began to have that sore foot about a week ago, that was when he lost those two toenails. Weird about the guineas. Beautiful days in our great life, love life, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service